Typical racehorse shoes are lightweight, made of a minimum of material, and have one calk at the forward end. This calk provides the primary means by which the horse achieves traction in the turf. One of the problems with such shoes has been that they provide a minimum means for achieving such traction.
Another problem with the minimum area and weight-type racehorse shoe is that it fails to protect the area of the horny sole of the hoof.